Thursday, May 3, 2012

Cascading Consequences... AGW educational links

The following is from a post over at SkepticsForum in reply to a silly challenge:  
Contrarian Skeptic:  "Cascading global climate change effect is an assumption you're making."

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CC: A quick thought about those cascading consequences:
Salting of our atmosphere with GHGs induces a warming; which leads to more water in the atmosphere which leads to more energy and moisture (and more warming) in the system; which leads to greater torrential rainfall events, which leads to floods which leads to damage, loss, death and misery.

Early unseasonal warm spells, fooling plants into sprouting, late season freeze kills, young buds and flowers and future fruit;... or the timing between unseasonable early blooming and pollinators being out of sync, bad for bounty.

North Pole ice cap disappearing; ocean soaking up all that sunlight/energy; massive unprecedented evaporation impacts atmospheric circulation patterns and the jet stream, leading to all sorts of cascading consequences, for lower latitude regions.

That's just scratching the surface
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Get an education!

http://www.skepticalscience.com/human-fingerprint-in-global-warming.html
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Europe Hammered by Winter, Is North America Next?
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/16feb_deepfreeze/
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New fresh water in Arctic could shift Gulf Stream
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-fresh-arctic-shift-gulf-stream.html
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Changing Jet Streams May Alter Paths of Storms and Hurricanes, April 17, 2008
http://carnegiescience.edu/news/changing_jet_streams_may_alter_paths_storms_and_hurricanes
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Global Winds Could Explain Record Rains, Tornadoes
ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2011) —
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111205170101.htm
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Linking Weird Weather to Rapid Warming of the Arctic 
5 Mar 2012: Analysis

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/linking_weird_weather_to_rapid_warming_of_the_arctic/2501/
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Arctic Warming is Altering Weather Patterns, Study Shows
April 3rd, 2012   By Andrew Freedman
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/arctic-warming-is-altering-weather-patterns-study-shows/
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Also see http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
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BBC Horizon - Global Weirding (2012)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi7WOQde7fI&feature=related

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Since I'm at it, I may as well add this other list of informative AGW education links:

What is the full picture? Humans are emitting around 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air every year. This is leaving a distinct human fingerprint:
http://www.skepticalscience.com/human-fingerprint-in-global-warming.html
    •    From space and the Earth’s surface, we see more heat being trapped by carbon dioxide
    •    Nights are warming faster than days
http://www.skepticalscience.com/empirical-evidence-for-co2-enhanced-greenhouse-effect.htm
    •    The upper atmosphere is cooling while the lower atmosphere is warming
http://www.skepticalscience.com/human-fingerprint-in-global-warming.html#stratosphere

Signs of warming are found all over the globe (here are just a few):
http://www.skepticalscience.com/evidence-for-global-warming.htm

    •    Ice sheets are melting
http://www.skepticalscience.com/Accelerating-ice-loss-from-Antarctica-and-Greenland.html
    •    Sea levels are rising
http://www.skepticalscience.com/sea-level-rise.htm
    •    Biological changes in tens of thousands of species
http://www.skepticalscience.com/evidence-for-global-warming.htm#biological
    •    Glaciers are retreating
http://www.skepticalscience.com/himalayan-glaciers-growing.htm
    •    Seasons are shifting
http://www.skepticalscience.com/advancing-spring-global-warming.htm
    •    Species are becoming extinct
http://www.skepticalscience.com/Species-extinctions-happening-before-our-eyes.html